A matter of choice: People and possibilities in the age of AI

Artificial intelligence (AI) has taken off at a rapid and dizzying pace. While advances in AI attract attention, they privilege technology in a fictional vacuum, overshadowing what really matters: people's choices.

The choices that people have and can make, within ever-expanding freedoms, are essential to human development, the goal of which is for people to live lives that they value and have reasons to value. A world with AI is full of choices, the exercise of which is both a matter of human development and a means of advancing it.

In the future, development depends less on what AI can do—and not how it is considered human—and more on mobilizing people's imaginations to reshape economies and societies to take full advantage of it. Rather than trying to predict what will happen in vain, this year's Human Development Report asks what choices can be made so that new paths of development for all countries dot the horizon, helping everyone have a chance to thrive in a world with AI.

Learn More: https://hdr.undp.org/content/human-development-report-2025